Anuja Chauhan (born 1970) is an Indian author, advertiser, and screenwriter. She is known for her written works like, The Zoya Factor (2008), Battle For Bittora (2010), Those Pricey Thakur Girls (2013), The House That BJ Built (2015), Baaz (2017), and Club You To Death (2021).
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Anuja Chauhan was born on Thursday, 17 September 1970 (age 53 years in 2023) in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. She did her schooling at the Army Public School, New Delhi, Sophia Girls Convent, Meerut Cantonment, and Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, New Delhi. She gained a bachelor’s degree in economics from Miranda House, Delhi University. Anuja Chauhan did her postgraduate diploma in mass communication from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
Family
Parents & Siblings
Anuja Chauhan’s father was in Indian Army. He took premature retirement at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and migrated to Australia. Her mother-in-law is Margaret Alva, the former General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee, a senior leader of the Indian National Congress, and the former Governor of Rajasthan. She has three elder sisters: Padmini, Rohini, and Nandini. She is the youngest one. Her older sister Nandini Bajpai is also an author.
Anuja Chauhan in her teenage
Husband & Children
Anuja Chauhan married Niret Alva, a television presenter and producer in 1994. In 1989, Anuja Chauhan met Niret Alva during the production of their college play in Delhi. In 2002, the couple moved to Gurgaon, a Delhi suburb.
Anuja Chauhan’s husband
Anuja Chauhan’s family
Anuja Chauhan with her kids
Religion/Religious Views
Eleven years after being married, she converted to Christianity, but in 2018, she declared that Christianity was as good or as bad as any other organised religion and that she is now quite firmly post-religious.
Autograph
Career
Advertising
- Anuja Chauhan joined JWT in 1993 and served there for the next seventeen years. In those working years she created several iconic catchphrases, mostly for Pepsi, and Cola, including ‘Yeh Dil Maange More,’ ‘Mera Number Kab Aayega,’ ‘Nothing official about it,’ and ‘Oye Bubbly.’
- By 2003, Anuja Chauhan, at the age of at age 33, became one of the youngest vice presidents in JWT.
- She frequently appears on Brand Equity’s list of the ten creative directors in India, which is published in The Economic Times supplement.
- She was ranked 26th in the “creative rankings 2010,” a list of the top executive creative directors in Asia-Pacific.
- In 2011 she was the sole Indian to serve on the One Show Jury.
- In August 2010, Anuja Chauhan left her position as vice president and executive creative director at JWT to focus on writing. She has continued to work as a consultant in advertising. As a consultant for the JWT Power of One team, she re-started working on the Pepsi brand in 2014. She provides consulting services for a few additional preferred clientele.
Writer
- ‘The Zoya Factor’ in 2008, published by HarperCollins.
- ‘Battle For Bittora: The Story Of India’s Most Passionate Lok Sabha Contest’ in 2010, published by HarperCollins.
- Her third book, ‘Those Pricey Thakur Girls’, set in pre-liberalization India, was published by HarperCollins in January 2013.
- ‘The House That BJ Built’ in May 2015 published by Westland.
- ‘Baaz’ in April 2017, published by HarperCollins.
- She released her sixth novel ‘Club You To Death’ in February 2021. It is her first murder mystery.
- Anuja Chauhan also wrote the screenplay for the commercial feature film Guppie, a love tale helmed by Bollywood producer/director Nikhil Advani, who also made the Akshay Kumar-starring movies Patiala House and Kal Ho Na Ho. She is now working on two new screenplays, one for the UTV-Disney production company and the other for the Anil Kapoor Film Company.
Awards, Honours, Achievements
- Chauhan was featured in Femina magazine’s list of the 50 most beautiful women in India in 2011,
- In 2011, Anuja Chahuhan’s name was on the list of the top 50 most powerful women in the country in MSN’s The Influentials.
- In 2017, she won the Femina Women Achievers Award, in the Literary contribution category.
- In 2018, she was awarded by the FICCI Ladies Organization for her contribution to Literature.
- Her novel, The Zoya Factor won India’s Fun Fearless Female award for literature in 2008 and the India Today Woman award for Woman as Storyteller in 2009 featuring in won Cosmopolitan Magazine. It was longlisted for the India Plaza Golden Quill in 2009.
Facts/Trivia
- Popular catchphrases she has worked on include ‘Darr Ke Aage Jeet Hai’ for Mountain Dew, ‘Tedha Hai par Mera Hai’ for Kurkure, ‘Be a Little Dillogical’, for Lays Chips and ‘KitKat Break Banta Hai’ for Nestle Kit Kat.
- Anuja Chauhan’s novel The Zoya Factor was optioned for a film by Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment production company. Subsequently, the rights were purchased by Pooja Shetty Deora’s Walkwater Films. The film, also titled The Zoya Factor, directed by Abhishek Sharma, produced by Fox Star Studios, Adlabs and Walkwater Films, with dialogues by Chauhan, and starring Sonam Kapoor and Dulquer Salmaan was scheduled for release in September 2019.
- In October 2010, her book, Battle For Bittora was released by actor Saif Ali Khan in Delhi, for critical approval from India Today, Outlook, The Week and Tehelka magazines.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn